He's primarily unlucky that he's a contemporary of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo ; with those two around, there's only ever one place up for grabs among the final three candidates for the award. Messi's Barca teammate Neymar has sneaked in ahead of him this year. However, we think Robert is probably the most successful player not to graduate from the longlist - ever.

Hear us out. Here's why.

Since the turn of last year, Lewandowski has collected one Bundesliga medal and is now helping Bayern Munich gallop toward another. He's currently second on the domestic scoring chart with 14 league goals, and has just been handed 4 Guinness World Records for his miraculous nine-minute, five-goal haul against Wolfsburg earlier in the season. He's also notched 5 more strikes in the Champions League . Not bad. Not bad at all.

As well as outscoring Neymar, Ronaldo and Messi so far this season, he's also got skills to match them. As this clip shows, Robert is simply amazing with the ball at his feet; from backheels to no-look ricochet shots, silky touches to precision catches - he can do it all.

"What do you mean I'm not in the Ballon D'Or running?!" (Image: Lars Baron)

He's got the silverware, he's got the goals and, most importantly, he's got the style to be a Ballon D'Or contender.